1 Corinthians (Program #3) – Introduction (3)

Many new believers shortly after receiving Christ as their Savior and experiencing a wonderful and dynamic salvation, go through a period of doubting and questioning. It seems that the new life they found in Christ to somehow evaporated. At such a time it’s common to question whether or not we are really saved. But to the Corinthian believers, Paul pointed out that we all receive two initial gifts when we received Christ.  First, we received eternal life, that’s the uncreated divine life of God. And we also received the Holy Spirit.  Based upon the word of God and these two indisputable gifts we have an outward assurance and the inward confirmation that he who has the Son has the life.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #15) – Cooperation with the Divine Operation (1)

As we are caring for new believers, we likely often follow the pattern of the apostle Paul as he cared for the young Church in Thessalonica by giving them encouraging and hopeful passages from the Bible.

In the Thessalonians, it was Paul’s word concerning the coming rapture of the believers at the end of the age and the Lord Jesus promise return from the heavens to the earth that fill them with hope. But if we are fully faithful  to the pattern of the apostle will also bring them to the words of warning and sobriety that Paul concluded the book of 1 Thesssalonians with Chapter 5. Listen to this lengthy passage at the beginning of Chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians 1-11:

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need for anything to be written to you; For you yourselves know perfectly well that like a thief in the night, so the day of the Lord comes. When they say, Peace and security, then sudden destruction comes upon them, just as birth pangs to a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you like a thief; For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. So then let us not asleep, as the rest do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep during the night, and those who get drunk are drunk during the night; But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us in order that whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore comfort one another, and build up each one the other, even as you also do.“

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1 Thessalonians (Program #10) – The Reward of Fostering

Of all the writings in the New Testament, perhaps the deepest and most profound are those of the apostle Paul. To Paul it was given to unfold many of the great truths of the Christian faith and to make known the eternal purpose of God. But his letters to the church in Thessalonica are striking in their simplicity. Because to the new believers in this city Paul became a nourishing and cherishing parent, fostering the growth of his spiritual children.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #2) – Characteristics of a Holy Life for the Church Life

The more you read the book of 1 Thessalonians, the more you can realize that this letter was written to very new believers. The apostle Paul passing through Macedonia close to one year before spent three weeks preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in, to use his word, power, in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance to the people of this dark and sinful city.

In God’s mercy a good number of these worldly people got saved in a marvelous way. And from that short time of labor the Church in Thessalonica was born. Their testimony became an encouragement to the entire region. And now several months later the apostle writes the first of his two epistles to them with the goal not just of encouraging them but of strengthening them in three important characteristics of the Christian life.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #1) – Introduction to a Holy Life for the Church Life

The apostle Paul’s two letters to the Church in Thessalonica may be considered his earliest writings. They are also significant in that they represent his fellowship to new believers, for the church in Thessalonica was made up almost exclusively of young people whom Paul personally preached the gospel to less than a year before he wrote this letter.

Acts chapter 16 gives us the account of how the Church in Thessalonica came into being.  In chapter 16 of Acts beginning in verse 9.  “And a vision appeared to Paul during the night: A certain man, a Macedonian, was standing and entreating him and saying, come over into Macedonia and help us.  And when he had seen the vision, we immediately endeavored to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to announce the gospel to them.”

And now jumping to chapter 17, “And they traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.  And according to his custom Paul went in to them, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, opening and setting before them that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, this is the Christ, the Jesus whom I announce to you. And some of them were persuaded and were joined to Paul and Silas, as well as a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and of the chief women not a few.”  So, a Church was born.

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